by Vyne, Amanda
“Enough,” Brit snapped and stood up to pull the overbearing fire-breathers back by their shirts. At least her two. Katya was responsible for hers, but that didn’t mean she wouldn’t give him hell. Brit elbowed her way between them to face Raife across the table. “No, Agent Merrick, I’m telling you I don’t know anything right now. Dr. Rupple was less than pleased with my answers to his questions, so he left me alone in hopes I would become more agreeable.”
A shiver worked over her skin as the sensation of being buried beneath the unrelenting silence of darkness hovered at the edge of her awareness. She’d survived her time in “the hole,” but the damn experience would add another lovely layer to her nightmares, as though she needed it.
“What the fuck is ‘the hole,’ Doc?” Tag reached down and held her chin in a grip that was gentle despite the fury she saw in rusty-green eyes. “I don’t like your fear when you think of it.” He brushed his fingers over her cheek, and a tingling awareness sparked across her flesh. “Is that where you received these?”
Brit jerked out of his grasp and away from the unsettling reaction she had to his touch. “Stay out of my head, Taggart.”
“I remember very well Dr. Rupple’s method for making you more agreeable, Dr. Mahoney.” A stillness settled over the room as Katya came to her feet, her halo of white-blonde hair making her look fragile. Her hands settled over her belly. Raife wrapped his arms around her from behind, and his big hands blanketed hers. Katya’s fear was tangible. “What they did? Can you reverse it? Will it get passed on to the baby?”
Brit closed her eyes and pressed two fingers above her right eyebrow, wincing when the slight touch sent more pain spearing into her skull. Tag and Vin stood so close behind her that every breath was infused with their heat, and her body felt heavy, sensitive. She shook her head and dropped her hand. “I don’t have any definitive answers right now. If I create a medical profile of each person that was rescued from the labs and cross-reference each one with the files from the center, I can develop a pattern, discover what Dr. Rupple was doing. If I can figure out what he did differently with you…” Brit shrugged. She couldn’t tell the woman that it wouldn’t matter because there would be no baby. “I don’t know.”
Tag gently wrapped his warm hand over her neck and pressed firm circles at the base of her skull. The gesture was too familiar. She should shrug him off, but she couldn’t force herself to. It was easing her headache even as it intensified the tingling that was a constant current running through her body when she was around them.
“Sorry, Doc. There are no files to compare.”
Before she could respond, Raife erupted. “What the fuck do you mean there are no files?”
“Settle down,” Katya murmured and turned in his embrace, smoothing her hands over his back.
“Sorry, man,” Tag said with deceptive calm as he shifting his body, maneuvering Brit until she was tucked at his side, hand still massaging her neck. “The data at the research facility was corrupted during the attack. Kat here knows her stuff. When she created that security system at the facility, she made sure it was going to stick.”
“You know Kat didn’t know that bastard she thought was her uncle had her making her own prison. This is her damn fault.” Raife jabbed a finger at Brit. “And she can fucking find a way to fix it. What about the files we got from before?”
“They were on the lab servers. All those were shredded,” Tag said, and he didn’t have to remind them who was responsible for that. She doubted anyone had forgotten. Tag eased Brit completely behind him, where Vin was positioning himself at his brother’s back. Gideon, silent as usual, casually pulled Katya back away from the table.
Raife thrust his hand through his hair again and turned to Forestor, who had risen from the table as the tension mounted but was silently watching the exchange. “Tell me why the fuck that traitor is still here? Let’s just let the damn Triumvirate have her if they want her so damn bad.”
Within a blink, Tag shoved Brit completely into Vin’s arms, and her next sight was Tag vaulting across the table to crash into Raife. Brit instinctively pressed forward, but Vin had an arm around her waist, restraining her. Forestor joined Gideon, providing a human wall between Katya and the brawling dragons, but he didn’t so much as say a word to separate them.
“This is ridiculous,” Brit bit out as she watched Raife flip Tag over onto the table. She pulled at Vin’s arm clamped around her waist. “I don’t need those damn files. Make them stop.”
“You don’t interfere between Drachon defending their mates, love. Even your boss knows that.”
When Tag was hurdled past them, his body cracking the wall on impact, Brit slapped Vin’s arm in frustration. She glared up at Vin, catching his slight smile as he watched Tag shake off the white drywall dust and launch back at Raife. Tag speared Raife in his middle with a wide shoulder, bending him in half and lifting him off his feet. They both crashed into the opposite wall. Brit watched the fight with a sense of shock.
“Oh, for Christ’s sake. I don’t need the files!” Brit yelled and stomped her foot in pure frustration when no one listened. Raife was a mated Drachon, the strongest of any species of the Arcane. Tag was in his final heat cycle, about as weak as he would ever be. “Tag is at a disadvantage. He’s not mated.”
Every muscle in Tag’s wide back flexed beneath his T-shirt as he struggled with the stronger man, and Brit was drawn to the sight. Despite her impatience with their behavior and maybe just a little bit of fear for Tag’s safety, Brit felt an odd sense of satisfaction to see him fighting. For her.
Brit shook her head at that startling thought, but before she could entertain it further, there was a flash of white-blonde hair and a pale blue sweater, then Raife was gone. Raife and Katya reappeared together in the farthest corner from Tag.
Raife, chest rising and falling with his anger, stared down at his mate. The expression on his face was almost comical. “Tell me you did not just get between two male Drachon.”
Katya crossed her arms and lifted her chin stubbornly. “I am more than capable of incapacitating both of you, and you know it. Don’t push me, Raife, or I might just have to prove it.”
Brit was furious herself, and she jerked free from Vin. She swung her arm out in a motion that encompassed both Tag and Raife. “What? Beating your own chests isn’t enough anymore, you need to beat each other’s as well?” Katya laughed, but Brit ignored her in favor of fixing her attention on Raife. She took a step toward the other Drachon. “If you would listen to me, you would not feel the need to engage in meaningless violence.”
Brit was spun back around by Tag’s grip on her arm. He looked down at her, eyes burning with a feral light that sent a shaft of excitement racing through her bloodstream. “Do not engage another male, woman, when you are meant to be mine.”
“You’re right, love.” Vin pressed his chest against her back, his breath hot as he whispered in her ear, “He’s not mated—yet.”
Chapter Ten
“I am not yours, and you are behaving like an ass,” Brit snapped and pushed Vin’s arm away from her as she faced down Tag. “I don’t need the damn files. I’ve never needed any of those files. Do you believe me such a fool I would permanently destroy important data?” She thumped his heaving chest with one fist. “I am a scientist.”
Tag growled low and pressed his hand against her fist, flattening it to his chest. He was warm and alive beneath her palm, and she desperately wanted to retreat before that life seeped too far into her.
Vin grunted in realization. “You have eidetic memory.”
Raife watched the play between them. “What the fuck are you talking about?”
“Yes,” Brit grumbled to Vin, afraid to take her eyes off Tag. She’d never seen him quite so out of control. The tendons in his neck stood out beneath his dark flesh. She swallowed and continued, “Once I see an image, I can recall it in perfect detail days, months, even years later.”
Forestor advanced on them bu
t stopped several feet away. “You’ve retained memory of every document you’ve ever seen? All of the research from then until now is all in your head?”
Brit jerked her hand away from Tag and faced the man who had once been her boss. She wasn’t sure yet if she still had a job. “Yes.”
“If all the files are gone, then that means you’re the data now,” Raife mused. His anger had retreated to little more than the subtle tic in his jaw. His gaze raked over Tag and Vin before settling on Forestor. “They’re going to pull out all stops to get their hands on her.”
Forestor nodded slowly, his dark gaze assessing the three of them. His nostrils flared, and Brit stiffened in reaction. “Brim Fallon will be here with the Drakes before the week is out. We need all those files transcribed so the Drachon scientists can help work on them. Agent Jennings, both Dr. Jennings and Dr. Mahoney are given limited access to the lab areas. They will reside in your suite and be put under constant surveillance until further notice.”
“What?” Brit glanced at Tag to see him give a terse nod. There was no way she was going to be able to be in Tag’s suite with Vin. The very thought had her body heating and pulsing in places that would make it difficult to concentrate on what she needed to. She wasn’t foolish enough to believe her restraint would withstand a constant onslaught of their hormones. “I have my own suite.”
“Dr. Mahoney,” Forestor began, his tone as hard as his gaze, “it is because I trust Tag that you are not being detained in a holding cell. You want your freedom, prove your loyalty.”
Brit watched him walk from the room, and she ground her teeth.
Raife looped his arm protectively around his mate to guide her to the door, but he paused when he was a few feet from them to look at her. Both Tag and Vin growled low.
“The life of my mate is in your hands, Doc,” Raife finally said, his voice strained as though the admission was a tight fit. “I would appreciate your help.”
Mating was a strong biological reaction that engaged every system in the body. Raife would literally die without his mate, and his response to the threat was understandable. He didn’t know how severe that threat actually was, and she couldn’t tell him until she had some hope to offer with the truth.
“With your permission, I would like to collect more blood samples.”
Raife looked down at his mate and pulled her close to nuzzle the top of her head. The sight made Brit’s chest constrict. In longing? Certainly not.
Raife nodded slowly and then lifted his gaze to her. “Tomorrow. Tonight…” He cast a warning glare to Tag and Vin. “Tonight, fucking mate her already so she can be clearheaded before she starts sticking needles in my woman.”
Brit watched Raife and Katya leave, her mouth slack as she processed the other Drachon’s parting words. Mate her? Suddenly Tag’s growled assertion she was his and Vin’s comment about Tag not being mated yet caught up to her, and she spun around to face them.
“Exactly”—Brit pressed the stiff words through her clenched teeth—“what is going on here?”
Gideon coughed, attracting her attention. The only one left in the room, he was watching with bland interest. Brit drew in a slow breath, heavily laced with the musky scent that was pushing her to the edge. Wet heat flooded her, and her body clenched in reaction. Damn.
“If you’ll kindly move to the side, Dr. Mahoney, I’ll leave you to this conversation.”
Heat suffused her face, and she looked around. There was plenty of space to cross the room. Was she so repugnant to the agents that they would not come near her? Even Raife and Forestor had given her a wide berth to leave the room.
“He’s being respectful, love,” Vin explained. There was an intensity in his hazel eyes that belied the lightness in his tone.
“No, he’s being smart.” Tag stomped forward and gripped her by the arm. He pulled her until she was positioned between him and Vin, giving Gideon a pathway to the door that was nowhere near her. “Which is more than I can say for you.”
“What?” Brit snapped and jerked her arm loose from the overbearing Neanderthal.
“I suspect I am a being a bit of both,” Gideon said from the door and inclined his head to the other men. “With your permission, I would like to speak with Dr. Mahoney at her convenience.”
Vin nodded. “Of course, she is still your physician.”
“I do not believe this.” Fury pulsed heavily behind her eyes, and she spewed forth a string of curses in her native tongue that did nothing to relieve her irritation. Gideon was gone, so she focused her wrath on the only two men left in the room—the Drachon that were stripping away her well-earned control with each minute she was in their presence.
“Did you understand any of that?” Tag asked his brother, but his gaze stayed fixed on her, a satisfied lift to his lips that only made her angrier. She hated to lose control, and the bastard knew that.
“A bit,” Vin acknowledged. “Most of it is difficult to translate.”
Brit crossed her arms over her chest and snorted. Until the Triumvirate had moved her, she’d grown up in a small fishing village in northwest Ireland, and no one was more creative with curses than fishermen, especially her Da. And she remembered everything she heard as well as saw.
“I don’t know what you think is happening here, but I will decide when and who I will treat, not you. Mating!” Brit scoffed. “I would be insane to mate with one of you, let alone the two of you.”
“That’s the thing about a Drachon mating, love. You don’t get to choose.”
Brit spun at the husky words that fanned the loose hair at the crown of her head. Vin had managed to nearly align his body against her back before she realized he was there. The heat of him seeped into her, and his erection pressed against her.
“This, little doctor,” Tag breathed against her cheek, and she jerked, effectively pinned between the two men, “is one thing you don’t get to control.”
“Bloody bastards move too fast,” Brit mumbled, careful to take only shallow breaths. Anything deeper would risk drawing in that musky scent eating away at her resolve. That and her nipples were hard, straining against the material of her blouse. She didn’t want to give Tag the cheap thrill of rubbing her breasts against his chest.
A chuckle rumbled through Tag. “Ah, Doc, no thrills associated with you could ever come cheap.”
She wanted to tell him to stay the hell out of her mind, but suddenly his lips were on hers, his tongue surging into her mouth, filling her senses with the taste of him. And that quickly, she broke. This time she leaned into his embrace, reveled in being taken by him—taunted him, inviting the power of his assault by nipping his lips.
Tag pulled back with a gasp, his broad chest rising against hers as he struggled for breath. “Damn, Doc, I—”
Brit fisted her hands in his shirtfront and pulled him back down to her. She didn’t want to hear any more about mating. She just wanted this. For too long she had wanted. This wasn’t about mating, it was about years of being this close to the fire yet never getting to feel the burn, and God did she feel it now. It flowed molten through her body, fed by each fierce beat of her heart.
Using the leverage of her grip on his shirt, she pushed him back, and he dropped into a chair. Driven by an irrefutable craving to crawl inside him, she followed him, teeth biting as she straddled his hips, her skirt sliding up her thighs to make room. Beneath her, she could feel him rising hard and hot against the material of his jeans. She shifted her hips, aligned his cock with the throbbing center of her, and then ground down. The wicked bite of pleasure sliced over her, and she lifted her head to inhale sharply with a moan.
It was violent and honest. She needed that right now. Needed this.
“Fuck.” Tag grunted and dropped his hands to her hips to pull her harder against him. His lips were swollen and red and wet, and she felt a feral sense of satisfaction to know that she’d made them that way. Mine.
Vin sank to his knees next to them. He clenched one hand in her
hair and turned her head slowly to him, his fingers tight against her scalp. The russet green of his eyes was heavy with a liquid desire that called to her, a rumbling demand that she couldn’t deny. His lips devoured hers, his tongue lapped over the roof of her mouth. He suckled her tongue into the depths of his mouth.
Tag pulled the front of her blouse open and jerked the cups of her bra down. Cool air fanned over her breasts, the tips tightening harder into near painful peaks, and he grazed the rough pads of his thumbs over them. Brit moaned into Vin’s mouth as the grating waves of pleasure worked through her, filling her with a hunger she would never be able to sate. Tag’s hands cupped her flesh, pressing the small mounds together to lave at her sensitive nipples with the flat of his tongue.
A shudder worked its way through her body until it narrowed down into a desperate throbbing in her vagina. Vin slid his mouth down her cheek to her jaw and then lower to her neck, pulling the flesh into his mouth and biting down. Brit arched into Tag’s mouth with a scream. She needed him inside her to fill the ache. Now. She tore at Tag’s jeans, and the button gave beneath her tugging fingers. When she would have unzipped them, he stopped her.
“Whoa. I saw this in a movie once, and it didn’t end good,” Tag mumbled and shifted his hips up to gingerly lower the zipper, and eased the edges of his jeans back. With a wince, he pulled his cock out, free from the added restraint of any underwear. His fist circled the width of it and stroked it once, pulling the ruddy skin tight over the length of him. She looked up to see his heavy-lidded eyes watching her.
“Like what you see, baby?”
“Aye.” The word hissed from between her swollen lips. Vin bit down on the curve of her shoulder again, and she let her eyelids lower on a moan. “God, please.”
She felt Vin rise to his feet beside her, his hand buried in her hair, stroking her scalp. “Please what, love?”
“I need.” Brit rocked her hips on Tag’s lap and growled in frustration. She ached. Hands—she thought they may have been Tag’s—glided over her thighs, pushing the edge of her skirt up until his big palms cupped the cheeks of her ass. Beneath her, Tag rumbled, and she felt the thin silk of her panties give. The tearing sound resonated through her, driving her desire higher. Tag’s hands continued to stroke over her until his fingers played along her slit. Brit snapped her eyes open.